


Roses Are Red

by cartercarter



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Cheating, Fluff, Jealousy, M/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-24 09:04:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19170076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cartercarter/pseuds/cartercarter
Summary: Shiro got curious as to why Keith had been suspicious and disappearing after class, so, he looked for some answers.This is a roleplay I have with @purple.lion.paladin on Instagram. He roleplays as Keith in this fic.





	Roses Are Red

Shiro had been getting suspicious of Keith always being busy after class. So, he took it upon himself to search through his room while Keith was in the shower. Shiro looked through every nook and cranny of the room, discovering the week old dirty underwear and uneaten pizza slices underneath Keith's bed. He looked through his drawers and his closet, hoping to find something that would explain why Keith was acting so shady. WHen he was close to giving up, he looked up at the coat hanger on the back of Keith's door, and low and behold stood proudly, Lance McClain's jacket. Shiro was livid. Not only had he warned Keith about Lance's fuck boy tendencies, he had also told Keith to let him know before he dated anyone. Shiro growled under his breath and snatched the jacket up from the coat hanger and sat on Keith's black bed sheets with it in his hands. He overturned the jacket and sniffed it. Yup. That's what fuck boy smells like, Axe. He then waited for Keith to return to his room from the shower.

Keith, after taking a long steamy shower and making sure not to spare a drop of hot water in the complex for the next thirty minutes or so, glided down the hallway towards his room, whistling and chipper. Towel secured Egyptian style at his V-line, he ruffled his dark hair in another towel, pushing into his room as droplets of moisture migrated about his skin. He stood at the doorway a while, finally letting down the towel after a good few seconds and realizing the larger male's presence, jumping back in surprise, and scrunching the bridge of skin relating his eyebrows. "In the name of-.." He took a minute to shake off the momentary shock, setting the extra towel over his shoulder as he faced Shiro. "You could've just messaged me if you wanted to hang out..?"

"I didn't mean to surprise you." Shiro said coldly, dejected even. He looked down at the jacket he was holding and then back to the still dripping wet male. He knew the way he was acting was unreasonable, but still, he couldn't help but feel overprotective over Keith. He was like his little brother... well, that wasn't really the word Shiro would use... maybe crush- Shiro stopped that train of thought right in its tracks. He looked back at the boy and held up the jacket slightly, "So you and McClain, huh?" He said in a slightly angry voice. Keith knew how Shiro felt about the brown haired brat.

Keith was a bit taken back by the sudden shortness of Shiro's attitude and aura, fingers roaming his palms to fidget with the leather biker gloves that usually adorned them- with the exception of showers. But it was soon obvious to the boy, as he heard the key word. 'McClain' was the only thing to pass through the dull filter in Keith's mind to understand the grim state of the other male's voice. At the comment, he looked to Shiro, then the jacket- Then to Shiro, then the jacket. "Lance...?" He breathed, running a hand through his damp hair. "Yeah, what about him..? Ah that dip shit must've left his jacket or something.. I better tell him.." He said simply. It was no secret that it took a bit more to get through to Keith, but now, his naivety had to have dug him into a deeper hole.

"Keith, don't play dumb. I understand if you and McClain are a thing, though, I am disappointed in you." Shiro said, once again dejected. He didn't want to ruin whatever Keith had with Lance, but he also didn't want his best friend to get hurt. 'Friend'... Shiro thought about that word a lot when it came to Keith. He didn't really know what the classified as, they had had moments when they were a tad bit more than friends, but Shiro didn't know how to interpret those moments. He looked back up at the mulleted male with a sad glimmer in his eyes. Why Keith had decided to choose Lance was a mystery to him. But he did, and there was nothing that Shiro could do about it at this point. "I don't want you to get hurt, Keith."

Keith stared blankly at Shiro for a moment, but only a moment. He then flinched and crinkled his nose. "Y-You can't be serious! You really think...?" He sighed, and swung open his closer doors and searched for suitable clothing. "Lance just studies with me because he's... Academically challenged, that's all..." Keith turned to face Shiro, leaning on the door frame. "He just left his jacket, okay?! A-Are you seriously being like this right now?" He felt, sufficed to say, embarrassed. Not in a flattered way.. But Shiro seemed far too convinced.

Shiro looked at Keith sternly. "You don't have to hide this from me, Keith. I'm not angry, not at you at least." He explained calmly. He looked down at his black shoes and twisted his ankle to pop the joint. Shiro didn't understand why Keith was keeping this from him. He always told Keith that he could come to him whenever there was an issue or if he ever needed to talk. But here they were, Keith was blatantly lying to Shiro's face. Shiro tried not to think hard about that fact and decided to look back up at Keith who was currently getting dressed. "I don't want you to hide things from me." He said, his mouth pressed into a firm line.

Keith slithered behind his closet door for a moment, slipping on some underwear and red pajama pants, soon reappearing, still shirtless, crossing his arms. "I'm not hiding anything rom you! It's the truth, nothings going on." He chewed on his lip, stepping towards Shiro as he tilted his head and tapped his fingers on his forearm. "Ugh, even if we were together, why is it your business?" He knew such crazy talk was far from the truth, but this was more of a test- with genuine motives. Keith had developed a biting feeling for the boy in front of him for quite a long time, and perhaps swift denial wasn't with pure and utter disgust for Lance-, but rather, such an infatuation with Shiro that he didn't want to imagine himself with anyone else. The thought made him huff, awaiting Shiro's response and ready to rebut with whatever reasons he could pluck out of thin air.

"It's not my business. But I would still like to be informed when something as drastic as this happens." Shiro spat back. He knew that he didn't want to get into an argument with Keith, but he wasn't going to back down. If Keith was going to be spiteful then Shiro would gladly return the favor. Keith and Shiro rarely got into fights, but when they did it was detrimental. Shiro looked the boy up and down again. "If nothings going on then why have you been disappearing off the face of the Earth everyday after your classes? I know it's not to 'study'." Shiro said, making quotation marks with his fingers. He knew this was an immature way to be acting, but at the moment, he could care less.

Upon this simple comment, Keith's eyes nearly busted out of their sockets, and he grit his teeth. "For God's sake, Shiro!!" He stood over the male, huffing and erratic like an angry animal. "I'm not dating Lance. The guys a pain in my ass, it makes me want to vomit on the spot thinking about even touching that big mouth of his that never stops running." He stomped his foot on the floor like a child, rolling his eyes as he turned to exit. "Ugh, you know what? What's the point in convincing you, you won't budge." Keith dug his nails into his palms, turning to peek at Shiro just before he decided to depart. "You know, at least Lance can listen hear and there instead of being a stubborn little boy twenty-four/seven!"

Shiro let a faint blush settle over his cheeks as Keith finished talking. He looked at the seemingly honest man and automatically felt bad, he shouldn't have jumped to conclusions so quickly. What was he supposed to do, though. He was jealous of the Cuban boy... wait, jealous? Why was he jealous... "Keith, wait, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have made my conclusion so quickly. I'm just... I don't understand why but i felt an urge of protectiveness over you. I got way to jealous of La- wait. That's not what I meant to say. I just... I got upset that you chose him over someone else, literally anyone else at the school would have been better than him. I'm very relieved that I was incorrect with my assumption. I'm sorry, Keith."

Meanwhile, Keith, in fact, was about to storm out of the room, eyes going wide and round as soon as he heard the well conducted sincerity Shiro's voice. In all honesty, he didn't know what to say. His trachea was loaded with insults and reasons from base to top, with no room for a breath of forgiveness. He slowly turned back around, relaxing his tense muscles while he was at it. "It's... It's okay, I guess... just be... more careful next time.. Yeah... More careful..." He tried to play it cool but the boy's true colors always ended up showing brightly through the translucent wording. He wanted to stay made at Shiro- He did-

But how could he?

"I understand if you're angry at me, Keith." Shiro said sincerely. He looked up at the mulleted boy once more. "I don't mean to assume things but... what was I supposed to think?" He said, slightly exasperated. Shiro looked down at the floor again. "That's- That's not what I meant... I just... I get worried about you sometimes." He finished off lamely. He knew Keith most likely wouldn't understand where his concern branched from, but Shiro could try to explain it.

"...Worried about me...?" Keith arched his eyebrow. "Look, I know I said Lance has a big mouth, but I'm not exactly sure he can eat me alive with it." He went to sit next to Shiro, slicking his hair back smoothly as it was still pliable. "Ah..." He put an index finger up, a light bulb jumping above his head. "You mean the deadly stench of his B.O., right? Or the even worse fumes of his Axe? I appreciate your concern, but I've gotten used to it at this point." ...The sad thing about this comment is, Keith was utterly serious and painfully clueless.

"Keith... that's not what I meant. I'm worried about your well being, as any good friend should be." Shiro felt pained at the sentence that escaped his pale lips. He didn't want to be friends with Keith, he wanted more... but he knew Keith was completely oblivious to his feelings and that it would never happen. "I'm concerned with who you've surrounded yourself with, do you really want to befriend someone that's hurt so many of our mutual friends?" Shiro asked calmly. trying not to trigger another tantrum from the smaller male. He looked to Keith with a sad glint in his eye. He knew Keith probably wouldn't understand what he mean, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try to tell him. Maybe if he confessed things would go a lot smoother...

Keith looked to Shiro and locked eye contact with him, setting his hand to rest at the back of his neck. "Ah, Lance? That rookie can try, but in the end, it doesn't really matter to me... It's just hard to watch his pathetic little attempts sometimes I guess..." He cocked his head to the side, moving a hand to place on the other male's broad shoulder and apply an extent of pressure. "W-What's wrong with you anyway? You're acting kind of..." He looked down, letting a few stray strands of hair fall in front of his shadowed eyes. "Off, I guess... Huh..." He slowly looked again, letting a boyish grin of comfort break through his usually blank line of a lip. "You know you can tell me anything."

Shiro jolted slightly at the contact and looked up at Keith's violet eyes. "I'm sorry... I don't mean to seem 'off' I'm just..." Shiro trailed off, not sure how to word his next sentence. He wanted to tell Keith how he felt and explain who he had gotten concerned but... he didn't know how Keith would take it... and he was so used to being able to predict Keith's reactions that a change in their system frightened him deeply. He couldn't tell Keith... It was obvious that Keith didn't like him back, and that was enough for Shiro to keep his mouth shut. "It's nothing, Keith. Don't worry about it."

The grin simply faded from the other's face, and he ran a hand down to Shiro's shoulder blade, giving him a few hardy slaps on the back. "Alright." He swiped Lance's jacket, taking in a gentle whiff before soon wrinkling his nose. "I should probably do that loser a favor and wash this, it smells like literal shit." He hopped up, carrying the jacket as if it were a deceased skunk. "Want some snacks or something...?" He gave Shiro a quick peek, still a hint of worry in his voice, a devouring desperation overtaking him to make it better. 

Because he felt as if that were his duty all the time.

Keith himself couldn't identify these feelings, but he had a subtle idea of what they were- just not enough of one to explain why he melted under Shiro's touch and thawed under his intense gaze.


End file.
